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Field-free switching of perpendicular magnetization at room temperature using out-of-plane spins from TaIrTe4

Nature Electronics volume 6, pages 732–738 (2023)Cite this article

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Abstract

The development of spintronic devices based on spin–orbit torque requires the electrical-current-driven field-free switching of magnetization in materials with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy. However, approaches to achieve such switching typically require additional magnetic layers or structural engineering, which complicates fabrication processes and impedes the scalability and stability of devices. Here we report the field-free switching of the perpendicular magnetic anisotropy ferromagnet cobalt iron boron at room temperature using out-of-plane spin-polarized current generated by the Weyl semimetal tantalum iridium telluride (TaIrTe4). Bilinear magnetoelectric resistance and spin-torque ferromagnetic resonance measurements confirm the out-of-plane polarized spins, and the out-of-plane spin canting angle is estimated to be around 8°. The spin Hall conductivity of TaIrTe4 is estimated to be 5.44 × 104 × ћ/2e (Ω m)−1, which is almost one order of magnitude larger than that of tungsten ditelluride. Our results indicate that TaIrTe4 is an efficient spin current source for field-free spin–orbit torque applications.

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Fig. 1: Crystal characterization and BMR results.
Fig. 2: ST-FMR measurements.
Fig. 3: Field-free switching of PMA heterostructures.
Fig. 4: Macrospin simulations.

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Data availability

The data that support the plots within this paper and other findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Code availability

The codes that support this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by SpOT-LITE program (A*STAR grant, A18A6b0057) through RIE2020 funds; Samsung Electronics (IO221024-03172-01); National Natural Science Foundation of China (nos. 22175203 and 22006023); Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province (nos. 2022B1515020065 and 2019A1515010428); and Plan Fostering Project of the State Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Materials and Technologies, Sun Yat-sen University (no. OEMT-2021-PZ-02). We would like to acknowledge that the simulation work involved in this research is partially supported by NUS Information Technology’s High Performance Computing.

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Yakun Liu, Guoyi Shi, Dushyant Kumar.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

    Yakun Liu, Guoyi Shi, Dushyant Kumar, Taeheon Kim, Shuyuan Shi, Dongsheng Yang, Chenhui Zhang, Fei Wang, Shuhan Yang, Yuchen Pu, Kaiming Cai & Hyunsoo Yang

  2. Integrative Sciences and Engineering Programme, NUS Graduate School, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

    Guoyi Shi & Hyunsoo Yang

  3. Department of Physics, Netaji Subhas University of Technology, New Delhi, India

    Dushyant Kumar

  4. State Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Materials and Technologies, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China

    Jiantian Zhang & Peng Yu

  5. imec, Leuven, Belgium

    Kaiming Cai

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Contributions

Y.L., D.K. and H.Y. designed the experiment. Y.L. fabricated the devices and analysed the data with the help of G.S., D.K. and F.W. Y.L. performed the BMR and switching measurements. G.S. and S.S. performed the ST-FMR measurement. T.K., Y.L., G.S. and K.C. performed the simulations. D.Y. performed the Raman measurements. C.Z. and Y.P. helped in the device fabrication for rebuttal. S.Y. deposited the PMA layer. J.Z. and P.Y. provided the single crystals of TaIrTe4. All authors discussed the results and commented on the manuscript. Y.L., G.S., T.K., D.K. and H.Y. wrote the manuscript. H.Y. initiated the idea and led the project.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Hyunsoo Yang.

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Nature Electronics thanks Saroj Dash, Hai-Zhou Lu and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Supplementary Notes 1–15, Figs. 1–19 and Table 1.

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Liu, Y., Shi, G., Kumar, D. et al. Field-free switching of perpendicular magnetization at room temperature using out-of-plane spins from TaIrTe4. Nat Electron 6, 732–738 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41928-023-01039-2

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